Picture 1:
The Soviet T-72 tank was originally designed as a less expensive
version of the Soviet 'state of the art', Kharkov-designed, T-64 main
battle tank. From the beginning of the T-64 program there had been
jealousy from other tank designers/manufacturers over the decision to
build the Kharkov tank, and the complicated T-64 tank had not been well
received by everyone in the Soviet military. The T-64 was designed with
an automatic loading system for the main gun, and when the announcement
was made in 1964 to adopt the T-64 for production, the competing
Vagonka design bureau in Nizhni Tagil began experiments to produce an
automatic loader for their own T-62 design. Gradually, push came to
shove, and the altered T-62 design with autoloader was accepted for
production in 1967 as the T-72. The new design was accepted for
full-scale production in 1971 after prototypes were built and tested,
and the T-72 tank was born.
The Soviet's decision to simultaneously build both the T-64
and T-72 tanks was a compromise decision between those in the military
demanding the most sophisticated tank possible to compete with NATO's
best (the T-64 was complicated and expensive), and the Ground Forces
who desired the greatest number of tanks (The T-72 was simpler and less
expensive). The decision to build both vehicles produced a difficult
situation for the Soviet Army because most of the two vehicle's parts
were different, the primary common component being the ammunition for
the 125mm gun. Production of the new T-72 tanks was first undertaken by
the Ural Railcar Plant in Nizhni Tagil. Manufacturing was later
extended to the Chelyabinsk Machinery Plant when it ceased production
of the T-55 and T-62 tanks for export. The plants at Omsk and Kharkov
were then used to produce the higher cost T-64 tank, and later the
expensive T-80. The T-72 in this photo is a Finnish Army T-72M1, an
export T-72 built by Poland under license. You can see Finland's
identifying blue and white national roundel behind the turret smoke
dischargers.
We are lucky to be able to explore the interior of three
different T-72 tanks through color photographs taken by Mr. David S.
Speaks and Mr. Deon de Lange. The first vehicle is a T-72 in the
collection of the Threat Training Facility (TTF), which is maintained
by the 547th Intelligence Squadron of the United States Air Force,
located at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. As we have mentioned
elsewhere in AFV INTERIORS (ZSU-23-4), the TTF encourages military
study of their collection, allowing visitors access to the interiors of
their collection vehicles for examination. The second tank is a T-72M1
and part of the vehicle collection at Fort Stewart Museum in Georgia.
The third vehicle is another T-72M1, this one located in the South
African Defense Forces (SADF) Museum of Armour. Because of the
excellent quality of both Mr. Speaks' and Mr. de Lange's digital
images, we have produced the pictures in large format and extended the
T-72 series out to a number of web pages. This first page will
introduce you to the developmental history and general layout of the
vehicle, using currently available diagrams and illustrations. The
other six parts of this series will then allow you to explore the
interior of the TTF Nellis T-72, Ft. Stewart T-72M1, and SADF Museum of
Armour T-72M1.
Picture 2:
We will begin our basic familiarization of the T-72 with some drawings
and cross-sections. These drawings of their first production T-72 were
produced by the Soviets in the early 70's, and originally included
Russian captions and labels. But the drawings have been reproduced many
times with the identification tags translated into other languages, and
in our case we have the US Army recognition version of the sketches,
with the labels written in English. Unfortunately, the labels are not
all correct.
Overall, the general layout is very similar to the T-62 from which the
design originated, but with some later T-64 influences. Like the T-64,
the crew is composed of only three men due to the use of an autoloader.
The driver's seat (20) is centrally located in the bow and the
commander and gunner are placed in the turret, with the gunner (18) on
the left side of the big gun. The T-72 design is low and wide, with the
inherent positive and negative results of such a design, which we will
examine in these pages. The main gun is a huge 125mm smooth bore
weapon, utilizing separate charge and projectile ammunition. Roughly
half of the ammo is stored in a revolving cassette magazine (16) under
the turret, and the remainder is stored in racks in the turret and
hull. The engine (13) is transversely mounted in the rear of the hull
behind a firewall, and the transmission (14) is located directly behind
the engine at the rear of the tank. Suspension is via torsion bars that
cross the hull floor, and includes six road wheels and rear drive
sprockets.
Picture 3:
A second interior drawing of the Soviet T-72 tank shows the layout
inside the hull and turret looking forward. Again, notice how wide and
short the overall design is. With the ammo carrousel taking up space
under the turret, it does not leave much room for the commander and
gunner above. The large breech of the 125mm weapon (25) dominates the
center of the drawing, and the commander's vision instruments (27),
storage for coax MB ammo (29) and radio (30) are identified. The PKT
coaxial MG (26) is also on the commander's side of the big gun.
On the opposite side of the turret are the gunner's controls and
components. These include his TPN night sight (7) mounted next to his
TPD range finder sight (6), with the gun's elevation handwheel (5)
mounted below. Off to the left of the handwheel is the traverse
indicator, or azimuth dial (24), although it is not drawn particularly
well here. The turret hand traverse wheel (23) is identified, as well
as the location of the gunner's primary hydraulic/electrical power
traverse/elevation controls (31). Let's take a closer look now at
enlargements of these drawings for a better feel for each tanker's
assignment.
Picture 4:
This enlargement of the driver's area from the earlier drawing is a bit
fuzzy, but it does provide us with basic information about his
position. The seat is well padded and comfortable in the Soviet
tradition, and secured to supports bolted directly to the hull floor
below. To either side of the driver's feet are the steering handles
(2); the use of steering tillers is one of the more antiquated
components of an otherwise fairly modern machine. To the driver's right
is his gearshift (4), and components of the NBC protection system (3
and 19). The pedals in front of his seat include the normal clutch,
brake, and accelerator, with portions of the braking system being
identified here (21).
Although not identified here with a number, you might be able to see
that the driver has a single vision periscope mounted forward of his
over-head hatch. This is a wide angle TVNE-4E day observation
periscope. The hatch is the type that elevates a few inches and then
swings to the side, the control for the hatch being the cylindrical
object you see attached to the ceiling and hanging down just behind (to
the right) of his gearshift. There is so little room between the hatch
and the centered gun tube above, that when the turret is centered, the
driver can not use his hatch. In that case he is provided with an
emergency belly hatch under his seat, the seat bolted directly to the
hatch and the hatch opening on hinges. Unfortunately, you can not
physically open this hatch while in the driver's forward position
because there is so little room (at least I was not able to), so its
use in an emergency is questionable. The driver's best chance for an
emergency exit is to remove his seat back and squirm back into the
turret, exiting then up through one of the turret hatches.
For the driver's hatch to be blocked by the main gun tube when the
turret is centered is not unusual for a modern battle tank, especially
when you consider the pressure to reduce the overall silhouette, but
the inability to open the emergency belly hatch for a quick egress is
odd. In most western designed tanks, the hatch does not open upward on
hinges like this, but completely drops out, and therefore does not
interfere with the exit. The front edge of the ammo carrousel is only a
few inches from the back of the driver's seat.
Picture 5:
You would think that with only two crewmen in the
turret that there would be some additional room to move around, but
just the opposite is true. Each position is surrounded by equipment,
and it leads to the feeling that the tank is strapped onto your body,
rather than you are sitting in the vehicle. There were three primary
types of T-72 produced for Soviet use, the T-72, the T-72A, and the
T-72B.
The T-72A was produced from 1979 to 1985 and incorporated a number of
improvements over the original design. These improvements included the
installation of the TPDK-1 laser ranging sight for the gunner replacing
the TPD2-49 coincidence range finder of the T-72, a new TPN3-49
gunner's night sight with the L-4 searchlight in place of his original
TPN1-49-23. The T-72A also has continuous side anticumulative screens,
a 902B smoke grenade launching system, a 2A46 gun in place of the
original 2A26M2, a TVNE-4B driver's night vision device, and a V-46-6
engine. The Warsaw Pact/Export versions of the T-72 include the T-72M,
which is the export version of the T-72, and the T-72M1, which is the
export version of the Soviet T-72A. Both the T-72M and T-72M1 export
versions include additionally strengthened frontal hull and turret
armor. Exports of these versions were numerous and included clients of
the former Warsaw Pact as well as Algeria, Angola, India, Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Algeria, Kuwait, Libya, Finland, and Yugoslavia. My
understanding is that there have been manufacturing licenses provided
for various T-72 building programs in Croatia, Czechoslovakia, India,
Iran, Iraq, Poland, and Yugoslavia.
The T-72B tank has been manufactured since 1985, and the
export version is known as the T-72S. The main differences between the
T-72A and B tanks consists mainly in the installation of the 2E42-2
stabilizer with electrohydraulic elevating drive and an
electromechanical traversing drive instead of the original 2E28M
two-plane electrohydraulic stabilizer. There is also an improved guided
weapons system, removable container explosive reactive armor, and an
improved engine, the V-84, in place of the V-46-6.
Our enlargement shows some of the gunner's equipment in an early T-72.
The main armament elevation mechanism (5) is indicated, as well as the
early TPD2-49 range finder sight (6) and the TPN1-49-23 IR night sight
(7). Most of the rear of the turret space is taken by the autoloader
mechanism (10), and what you see here in the drawing includes the
hoist, rammer, and ejection port mechanism. The ammo carrousel (16) is
under the turret floor and the turret basket (17) is also identified in
the image.
Picture 6:
One of the best known properties of the T-72 line is the replacement of
the loader in the turret with an autoloader and ammunition carrousel; a
drawing of the carrousel is shown here. As I mentioned earlier, the
main ammunition reserve consists of 22 projectiles and 22 propellant
cases, the projectiles stored on the bottom layer of the carrousel and
the Zh-40 cases on top. Each projectile comes packaged in a separate
cassette that also contains a semi-combustible case above the
projectile. In the T-72A there are twenty-two additional projectiles
and cases stored up in the hull and turret. The only ammo stored above
the turret lip are five projectiles located near the gunner's and
commander's station on later models of the T-72, the rest are in racks
down in the hull.
Briefly, once the gunner has selected the desired projectile to load,
the carrousel rotates under the turret floor until the projectile type
stops under the autoloader hoist at the rear of the turret. The gun is
then automatically elevated into the proper loading position and the
autoloader hoist brings up the two-piece ammunition cassette from the
carrousel. The projectile is first rammed into the breech and then the
cassette lowers and the charge is then rammed. The gun then
automatically returns to the gunner's previous line of sight as the
hoist replaces the empty cassette down in the carrousel. Now, the
weapon can then be fired. After firing, the spent stub casing is
ejected out the rear of the turret through a small port in the roof
while the next cassette is selected in the carrousel and the loading
procedure repeated. It takes approximately eight seconds to load a new
round and have it ready for firing.
Picture 7:
This is a simple basic schematic of the 2A46M
autoloader design. As I mentioned earlier, the ammo carrousel (12)
under the turret floor has 22 cassettes located around its perimeter,
each with a projectile below and a cartridge case above. The cartridge
cases are of the same type, regardless of the projectile type.
Before battle, as the ammunition is being loaded into the carrousel,
the gunner records the location of each projectile type in the
carrousel. Then, when called to battle and with the gunner indicating
on his control panel which projectile the commander has called out, the
carrousel automatically rotates until that ammunition type is aligned
with the loader hoist. The hoist then lifts the cassette up to the rear
of the breech, and when the gun has automatically reached the correct
elevation for loading (+3 degrees), the projectile (7) and the case (6)
are rammed. Notice that there are two ramming cycles (8 & 9). In
the later T-80 autoloader, these operations are combined into one, and
the weapon may then be fired more rapidly than the eight rounds per
minute of the T-72 autoloader. Firing one round every eight seconds may
seem fast to you, but go ahead and count out eight seconds and you will
see that it can seem like an eternity if someone is shooting back at
you. And don't forget that the gun returns to the position it was last
laid. There is always some correction required before it can be fired
again, and that takes additional time.
After loading, the gun automatically returns to the prior engagement
angle and the gunner may then adjust his aim and fire the weapon. This
leads to the interesting gun tube bobbing that is characteristic of a
T-72 with autoloader in action. After firing, the base stub from the
cartridge case (5) is extracted by the stub case ejector, and after a
small hatch has opened in the rear roof, the stub is tossed out the
turret. The ejecting of the stub through an open hatch also opens the
tank to the possible entrance of NBC exposure, and it has always seemed
to me to be a strange design component of these modern Soviet/Russian
tanks. The Soviets apparently thought the possible contamination was of
less importance than ejecting the smoking stubs out of the vehicle. In
this particular drawing, the turret floor (12) and the tank hull bottom
plate (11) are both identified.
Picture 8:
This is a more detailed schematic of the 2A46M loader in the T-72, with
most of the major components identified, the loader again seen from the
right side (the commander's side). The electro-mechanical loader is
operated by electric motors and includes the carrousel, cassette hoist,
stub-case ejector, rammer, electro-mechanical gun lock (to immobilize
the gun while it is being loaded), a memory unit (to return the gun to
the gunner's last aiming position), distributor box, control panel,
loading platform, and a "rounds left/cassettes empty" indicator.
Storing the ammunition in magazines separated by bulkheads
from the tank crew, like found in the M1 Abrams and Leopard 2, has not
been common in Soviet tanks. The result is that hits on the T-72
usually produce catastrophic ammunition fires, as evidenced by action
in Lebanon in 1982 and the Gulf War. And although most official
Soviet/Russian literature suggests that storing the ammo under the
turret floor helps reduce the overall height of the vehicle, it is
obvious that just the opposite is true. By storing the ammo under the
turret floor, the crew headspace is further reduced, cramping their
positions even more. Imagine how low the silhouette of this vehicle
would be if the ammunition was located in a protected rear turret
bustle, as it is in the French Leclerc tank for instance, also equipped
with an autoloader.
Picture 9:
Another enlargement of an earlier drawing shows
once again the commander's side of the turret. The radio set you see in
the center of the image is the R-123M, replaced by the R-173 in the
T-72A and later variants. It operates in the FM mode in the range of
30,000 to 76,000 kHz with 10 pre-selected frequencies. And unlike most
Western tank radio sets, the R-173M uses a throat mike that is part of
the tanker's leather helmet. The same mike system is also utilized with
the tank's internal intercom system.
The commander is provided with a rotating cupola into which is mounted
his overhead hatch with two rear facing TNPA vision blocks, and three
vision devices facing forward (27). While the outer two devices are
simple TNP-160 day vision blocks, the central device is the commander's
main sight. In most of the T-72 models, this is a target designation
sight, the TKN-3. The TKN-3 is a bi-ocular sight that allows the
commander to sight a new target by rotating this cupola, and then hand
it off to the gunner by pushing a button on the sight handle that
traverses the turret to his line of sight. Unlike Western tanks, the
commander does not have the same sight picture as his gunner, there is
no connection between his sight and the gunner's. But the hunter-killer
capability of the TKN-3 system has been a common design of
Soviet/Russian tanks for many years, so let's take a closer look at the
TKN-3.
Picture 10:
This is a drawing of the commander's TKN-3; we
will see examples of the actual unit later in our two tanks. The
periscope sight head with the main mirror (4) fits up into and opening
in the cupola in front of his hatch, with the remainder of the sight
hanging down into the cupola. The securing screw (5) holds the unit
together and the shade lever (6) provides control to close or open the
protective cover inside the head. The oculars (8) have soft rubber eye
cups surrounding them for some eye protection, and a forehead pad (3)
is also provided to brace your head while using the sight. During
operation, the commander holds the handles (1 & 11) with both
hands, and rotates his cupola manually by using these handles.
If the commander spots a target in his sight, he can bring the
main gun directly onto his line of sight in azimuth by pressing the
button (2) on the left control handle. He can then hand off the target
to the gunner after the turret rotates to his view. But if the
commander depresses the button (10) on the right control handle, he can
override the gunner's traverse and rotate the turret anywhere he
pleases by himself. Unlike most Western tank designs, the commander can
not fine lay the gun, nor can he fire it. The crew is depends on the
gunner for firing the main weapon, and if there is a problem with him,
that's the end of the game. The TKN-3 has a built-in infrared night
viewing channel, and the magnification for this is 4.2x while the day
daylight channel is 5x. The TKN-3 also has an angular field of view of
around 10 degrees in day mode, and 8 degrees in night. At night, the
commander can also use the cupola mounted OU-3GK infrared searchlight
to improve his view, but it has an effective range of only about 400m.
Picture 11:
The 2A46 125mm gun was designed by the famous Petrov design bureau in
Perm, and it is a very powerful and accurate weapon. As a smooth bore
gun, it can fire a number of different projectiles, including a guided
missile in the most recent versions of the weapon. The designation 2A46
is the industrial designation for the weapon, but it is also known as
the D-81TM, and has been named the Rapira 3 by the Russians. Typical
rounds fired from the weapon include the 3WBK10 or 3WBK7 high explosive
anti-tank (HEAT) round, a 3WOF22 high explosive fragmentation
(HE-FRAG), or a 3WBM3 (or 3WBM6/7/8) armor-piercing, fin-stabilized,
discarding sabot (APFSDS). These ammunition types are said to be also
common to the T-64, T-80, T-80 Ukraine, and T-90 since they use the
same weapon.
Maximum gun depression is only -5 degrees due to the lack of headroom
inside the short turret, and the maximum elevation is +15 degrees. The
weapon has a sliding wedge breech block that opens to the left, and the
ammunition is fired electrically. If the electric autoloader
malfunctions, there are hand cranks to manually load the weapon, but
the frequency of firing then drops to two or fewer rounds per minute.
Once the carrousel rounds are used up, the crew must laboriously reload
it with the other projectiles and cases that have been stored in racks
in the turret and hull. This Sovphoto image shows tankers carefully
loading the early fragile Zh40 self-consuming propellant cases.
Picture 12:
Except for the ammo in the carrousel under the turret floor, ammunition
storage in the T-72 is open and generally in brackets. There are
propellant cases and projectiles stowed behind both the gunner's and
commander's seats, the rounds behind the commander's seats seen here at
the top of the image and include two subcaliber projectiles and two
propellant cases (black). There is a large under floor fuel tank
between the rear of the turret floor and the firewall, and some
propellant cases are stowed vertically in recesses in this fuel tank.
Up front, there is another fuel tank to the right of the driver, and at
the far left of the illustration you can see that additional rounds and
propellant cases are stowed in a similar fashion recessed into the fuel
tank, but now horizontally. A number of rounds are stowed on the hull
wall at the rear of the T-72, and a few propellant cases are strapped
to the turret floor at the feet of both gunner and commander. Again
notice that in the carrousel, the propellant cases are placed in each
cassette above the corresponding projectile. Although it is difficult
to see in this illustration, the location of both types of MG ammo
boxes is also shown, mostly on the commander's side of the turret.
Picture 13:
Our final drawing enlargement shows again the gunner's two primary
sights. Recall that we are in an early T-72 with the biocular
coincidence rangefinder. The laser rangefinder sight system that
replaced the coincidence type in the T-72A and later vehicles has only
one ocular, unlike what you see here. A typical gunner drill in a
vehicle equipped with the laser rangefinder sight would go something
like this: To bring the main gun into action the gunner first switches
on the gyro drive of the TPD-K1 day sight (in a T-72A or T-72M1). After
warm up, he then uncages the gyro for the field of view stabilizer and
releases the elevating mechanism while switching on the stabilizer. The
systems are now ready for action and the gunner can begin scanning the
battlefield while using his sight and traversing the turret using his
twin duplex control handles, or he can wait for the commander to
designate a target and traverse the turret to it for him. Unlike most
Western tanks, the gunner's powered traverse handles do not tilt to
direct traverse, but they simply rotate in the horizontal plane.
Although not seen in this drawing, the gunner's hatch opens
forward and has a circular opening in it for installing the snorkel for
deep fording. In front of the hatch is a TNP-160 day periscope, while a
TNPA-65 vision block is mounted in the hatch cover. In front and to the
left of the hatch are the armored covers for the two sights mounted on
the roof of the turret mentioned earlier.
Picture 14:
Here is a schematic drawing of the TPD-K1 laser
rangefinder sight. In this case, the controls for the autoloader have
not been attached. The controls along the top of the sight that would
be closest to the turret ceiling include the emergency ammo selector
switch (11) for times when electricity is not available. Ballistic data
is stored on curved discs and when the autoloader is fully functional
this switch has no effect. The indicator lights (10) are next to the
emergency selector. Along the right side of the sight box is a
correction value setting knob (16) and indicator lights for the laser
rangefinder READY (20), meaning the system is in ready status. The
other two lights are SETTING (22), which goes out after a measurement
is taken and then shines again when the laser is again set to
go-normally around six seconds interval. The final light indicates
whether the system is in AUTO/HAND (23). Next to the lights is a box
that houses the digital readout for the rangefinder (21) and close
range target indicator light (24) and setting knob (25).
The three switches above the handgrips are for the sight stabilizer
controls (2, 29, 30) with their indicator light panel (28) to the
right. Under the ocular is the dioptic setting knob (6) and to the left
is the brightness control (7) for the graticle. As you will see later,
the additional small control panel for the autoloader will be attached
below and to the left of the stabilizer controls.
Picture 15:
An old Soviet publicity photo shows a tanker in the gunner's seat
working on the autoloader system in a T-72. This image provides a good
idea of the scale of the interior of the turret, and the closeness of
the surrounding components. The very wide angle of the camera lens
distorts the edges of the picture and makes the interior appear roomier
than it actually is. His TPD-K1 rangefinder sight is behind his left
shoulder. The equipment he is handling appears to be part of the stub
ejector system; his left hand is on the opening lever that actuates the
ejection port cover. There are two motors that control the action of
the autoloader at the back of the turret; one actuates the hoist
bringing ammo up from the carrousel to the rear of the breech, and the
second opens the stub ejection port. This stub ejection port electric
motor is difficult to see in this photo, but it is behind the actuating
lever the tanker is working on.
Picture 16:
Once the gunner has used his laser range finder
(or stadiametric graticule) to determine the distance to his target, he
then selects the desired type of ammunition via the knob near the
stabilizer grips. He then presses his load button on his autoloader
control panel, and the autoloader then prepares the gun for firing, the
gunner being careful to keep his right arm away from the loading
mechanism. If the gunner is engaging a moving target, the ballistic
computer in the sight measures the signal produced as the gunner tracks
the target by rotating the turret, and the sight graticule then will
displace sideways to provide the necessary lead angle. The gunner then
has to realign the graticule aiming point back onto the target, and
then he can fire the weapon by pulling the trigger on the front of the
left or right power control handle. The coax 7.62mm PKT MG is also
aimed in the same way, but of course the ammunition selection knob at
the top of the sight has to be set for coax MG.
This picture is the graticule view when looking through the TPD-K1
sight, but without the laser range circle illuminated. At the top of
the sight picture is the target-range scale and the horizontal line
with the triangles running across the center is the main aiming mark,
with lead angle markers to either side. Below the lead markers is a
vertical scale for the two ballistic graticules, one for HEAT rounds on
the left, and the other for HE-FRAG rounds on the right. The scale off
to the far right is a stadiametric rangefinder (using size of target to
determine range) that assumes an average target height of around 2m and
provides approximate ranges accordingly, from 40 at the left end of the
scale to 5 at the far right, in increments of 5. Let's take a closer
look at the coax mounted on the commander's side of the vehicle.
Picture 17:
The following description of the 7.62mm PKT tank
machine gun comes from the US Army manual on Soviet equipment (FM
100-2-3). The 7.62-mm general-purpose machine gun, Pulemyot Kalashnikov
(PK), is a gas-operated, belt-fed, sustained-fire weapon. The Soviets
based its design on the Kalashnikov assault rifle. Notable differences
from the assault rifle are the gas cylinder located below the barrel
and the hollow-frame stock resembling that of the SVD sniper rifle. The
PKM fires 7.62 x 54R rimmed cartridges using a metal non-disintegrating
belt. The basic PK model is bipod-mounted and fed by a 100-round belt
carried in a box fastened to the right side of the receiver. It weighs
around nine kilograms and is 1161 millimeters long. Most of the weapon
is constructed of stamped metal and forged steel. The PKS is a PK
mounted on a lightweight (4.75-kg) tripod. It uses either a 200 or 250
round belt. The belt feeds from a box placed to the right of the
weapon.
The PKT is the tank-mounted version of the PK. Late-model Soviet tanks,
turreted APCs and ICVs, and amphibious scout cars mount the MG as a
coaxial machine gun. It has a longer and heavier barrel than the PK and
lacks the PK's stock, sights, bipod, and trigger mechanism. The PKT has
a solenoid at the rear for electrical remote-controlled firing,
although it also has an emergency manual trigger. The image is a
Kalashnikov publicity photo.
Picture 18:
As we have seen, the gunner's IR night sight is
to the left of the day sight, but firing at night is not as easy, nor
accurate, as with Western tanks. In the M-60 and later M1 Abrams and
Leopard 2 for example, the gunner simply switches over to the thermal
image channel and continues firing with the same sight and controls.
But in the T-72, the gunner has to switch over to the TPN1-49 IR night
sight (in the T-72A/M1) and also has to use the large L-2 IR
searchlight mounted on the right side of the main armament for active
IR. This large IR searchlight has a limited range of 800m, and the
enemy can easily spot the active IR. Also, the laser rangefinder and
computer generated angle of sight cannot be used at night, which puts
the T-72A at a real tactical disadvantage. This fact helps explain the
dismal kill record of Iraqi T-72 gunners when engaged by coalition
forces at night during Operation Desert Storm. Like this unfortunate
T-72M1, they did not have an opportunity to engage targets at the
distance required in modern warfare.
Okay, let's climb into one of the preserved T-72s we have lined up for
you outside, and see how all this looks when sitting inside the real
thing.
TO T-72 PART 2, TTF NELLIS T-72 INTRODUCTION
TO T-72 PART 3, TTF NELLIS T-72 CONCLUSION
TO T-72 PART 4, FT. STEWART T-72M1 INTRODUCTION
TO T-72 PART 5, FT. STEWART T-72M1 CONTINUATION
TO T-72 PART 6, FT. STEWART T-72M1 CONCLUSION
TO T-72 PART 7, SADF MUSEUM OF ARMOUR T-72M1
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